East Stroudsburg University hosted the sixteenth annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Breakfast this morning at the campus' Keystone Room. The fundraiser preserves King's teachings on the annual celebration of his birth.

Keynote speaker Charles Jones served as a legal adviser for King's movement and shared behind-the-scenes stories of the civil rights movement in the mid 1960s.

“If I were asked who were the two greatest leaders in the 19th and 20th centuries I'd say Lincoln for abolishing slavery and King for abolishing Jim Crow and segregation in the south,” he said.

King would have been 84 on Jan. 15.

King led protest marches throughout the south using economic boycotts to leverage changes during the civil rights movement. King

believed a certain amount of coercion, even illegal coercion should be tolerated to end segregated busing, according to Jones.

“If Dr. King hadn't insisted on non-violence, he would not have been able to sustain the movement beyond its beginnings with the Montgomery Bus Boycott,” Jones said. “Because the First Amendment protects only peaceful protest, had the movement not been dedicated to non-violence, my organization, the Legal Defense Fund would not have been able to provide the support needed to sustain the movement.”

Jones recalled being summoned by Young to go to the jail were King was being held after he was arrested during a voting rights march in Tuscaloosa, sometime in 1965. King had declined to make bail for his release. Jones was told to ask King if he was ready to be released.

When Jones arrived, he was astonished to discover that King was being confined in what Jones described as a double cell or a large reception cell. It had been converted into something like a dining room/bedroom with a study. There were tables covered with a white table cloth and candles for added lighting.

“I talked to Dr. King and asked what he wanted to do,” Jones said. “He smiled and said simply that the past few weeks had been particularly demanding and he needed more time to recover.”

Nothing was done to release King.

“I realized that an arrangement had been made to allow Dr. King sanctuary in exchange for the cessation of demonstrations,” he said.

The civil rights movement would have been far different and far less successful if King wasn't who he was, according to Jones. He said what made King a great political and spiritual leader was his vision, charisma and a leader who had great command skills to successfully lead and maintain the movement.

For more on Monday's events commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., check back at PoconoRecord.com.